From the Editor…

Blessing those that curse us

Editor Dana Larsen

Your government officially hates you.

As you read this their agents are out looking for you, or someone just like you, so they can confiscate your marijuana, handcuff you and humiliate you, take your picture, write down your name, and lock you up for awhile.

Trillions of dollars and billions of man hours have been spent over the past seven decades in a highly organized international effort to exterminate the cannabis plant and all use of marijuana from everywhere on the earth.

Despite this massive ongoing attempt at cultural genocide and extinction of the plant genotype cannabis marijuana, cannabis culture has grown and even thrived all over the planet, and is now blossoming into a massive global revolution.

What is truly amazing about worldwide cannabis culture is how it has managed to survive such a sustained attack without resorting to violence. Despite the extensive brutality inflicted upon us and the multi-trillion dollar value of the worldwide cannabis crop, cannabis culture is renowned for its peaceful demeanor.

Although some marijuana growers are involved in other illegal activities, the vast majority of cannabis grown in Canada is done so on a small scale, for personal use and a small profit, by peaceful and otherwise law-abiding citizens.

The recent use of military equipment and personnel to raid the small BC island of Lasquiti is a perfect example of this situation. Lasquiti island has a population of under 350 residents, and in early September was the victim of a combined RCMP and military assault, which used a military helicopter and police boats to remove a few hundred plants, scattered in personal plantations which the RCMP admitted ranged from only 10-40 plants each.

Yet despite this armed invasion of their homes and the callous destruction of their livelihood, the residents of Lasquiti island did not take up arms and fight back against the intruders. There were no reports of boobytrapped plants or any retaliation, other than angry residents loudly expressing their feelings about police choppers.

These kind of extreme and unnecessary measures against peaceful gardeners show that those who have declared war against us are more heavily armed and more prepared for violence than we could ever be. We have no hope of winning our freedom through force, nor would it even be appropriate to try. Ours must be a victory of conscience.

Our only weapons in their war against us are our good character and the knowledge that we are right. Our only way of ending their war against us is to turn their own weapons against them, and their greatest weapons are shame and fear.

They have tried to make us ashamed of smoking marijuana, but we must make them ashamed to harass and degrade us instead.

They want us to hide in the shadows of society, afraid to admit that we, too, belong to that secret group. Yet if we hide in secret then they can attack us in secret.

We must refuse their stigma and turn it back against them. If we overcome our fear and stand together in peaceful defiance of marijuana prohibition, then it turns their shame in upon itself. They become ashamed of having their brutality exposed to the light of day, and afraid of having public opinion forcefully turn against them.

Already 69% of Canadians oppose the prohibition of marijuana. Yet most don’t actively oppose it. They are able to do nothing because they believe that the laws against marijuana, while misguided, are not very severe, and do not harm many.

We must use the current media attention to ensure that the spotlight remains where it belongs. Not on politicians, treaties or legal technicalities, but upon the human lives and families being destroyed by the vicious war on drugs.

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecuteyou…”Jesus of Nazareth

Dana Larsen, Editor

CC welcomes new art director

This issue marks the first under the art direction of Michael Butts, who has taken the helm from the inimitable David Cheong. Dave said he was going to the bathroom a few months ago, and hasn’t been heard from since.

Hemp paper this issue!

At great expense and no little difficulty, we are proud to re-introduce hemp paper into Cannabis Canada with this issue. The sixteen pages of hemp blend paper was provided by Ecosource Paper in Victoria.